Donald Trump unveils his 'accomplishments' boasting about job gains

Donald Trump unveils his ‘accomplishments’ boasting about job gains and ‘record stock market’ but leaves out the 400,000 coronavirus death toll and his historic pair of impeachments

  • White House released ‘Trump Administration Accomplishments’ on president’s last day
  • Section on economic boom contains caveat: ‘Before the China Virus invaded our shores, we built the world’s most prosperous economy’
  • Touts 7 million job gain but jobs are down 3 million from when he took office
  • Also touts ‘record stock market’ and ‘record 401(k)s
  • Some of the boom has come since Trump lost to Joe Biden
  • Touts ‘Phase One’ China deal that paused trade war he started 
  •  Also brags about meetings with Kim Jong-un
  • Claimed mitigation eliminated up to 2.2 millions deaths, 400,000 who did die  of the coronavirus
  • Mentions actions in Portland  but not the MAGA riot in the Capitol that will be big part of his legacy

The White House released a sanitized list of ‘Trump Administration Accomplishments’ on the president’s last full day in office – claiming credit for job gains before the coronavirus left millions unemployed.

The president is also taking credit for millions of deaths avoided but not the 400,000 U.S. coronavirus deaths that happened on his watch.

The White House pushed out its accomplishments list as the president leaves office with the lowest approval ratings of his presidency, with windows still smashed inside the Capitol from the MAGA riot this month.

President Donald Trump is claiming credit for job gains before the coronavirus left millions unemployed, and touting a ‘Phase One’ trade agreement that ended a trade war with China

The document hails an ‘Unprecedented Economic Boom,’ although the strong growth even in Trump’s first three years was not without president.

It begins with a major caveat: ‘Before the China Virus invaded our shores, we built the world’s most prosperous economy.’ 

It states that ‘America gained 7 million new jobs – more than three times government experts’ projections.’ The economy went on a tear at the start of Trump’s term, picking up post-Great Recession growth from the Obama Administration.

But once the coronavirus hit, millions of Americans were thrown off payrolls, with the economy losing 3 million jobs since the day he took office. That sets a record for all U.S. presidents, Republican and Democratic, since the government started keeping track in 1939.

Trump takes credit for ‘record stock market numbers and record 401ks,’ and while his administration’s economic policies helped shape the economic picture, it was business and investors who drove up stock valuations. 

The White House released a list of Trump Administration Accomplishments on President Trump’s last full day in office

The list of accomplishments doesn’t mention the riot that trashed the U.S. Capitol

Trump became the ‘first president to meet with a leader of North Korea and the first sitting president to cross the demilitarized zone into North Korea,’ the list said under a heading of ‘Peace Through Strength’

The list touts ‘Authorized $28 billion in aid for farmers who have been subjected to unfair trade practices – fully funded by the tariffs paid by China,’ although U.S. subsidies meant to help farmers hit by the trade war are born by U.S. taxpayers

The accomplishments list  touts ‘record stock market’ and ‘record 401(k)s’

The administration ‘Renewed our cherished friendship and alliance with Israel and took historic action to promote peace in the Middle East,’ it says. Here White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, left, elbow bumps Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a news conference in Jerusalem, Monday, Dec. 21, 2020

It also promotes the $3.2 trillion tax cut, which slashed rates, ended the estate tax – but also added to the dead, increased the wealth gap, and didn’t deliver on a a simplification promise that was to shrink returns to the size of a postcard.

It touts ‘massive deregulation’ efforts, some of which have become law and some of which the Biden administration will immediately try to undue. 

The list finds several ways to try to get around the historic coronavirus pandemic that reshaped Trump’s legacy.

One section says he ‘achieved a record-setting economic comeback by rejecting blanket lockdowns’ – although the U.S. also set records for failing to control the spread of the disease within its borders.

‘Since coronavirus lockdowns ended, the economy has added back over 12 million jobs, more than half the jobs lost,’ it states, suggesting the massive job loss that transpired. The economy lost 22 million jobs after the virus hit.  

Prior to that, the U.S. economy was strong, with unemployment at a 50-year low.  

Likewise with coronavirus deaths, the list states that the administration ‘Acted early to combat the China Virus in the United States.’

It notes that it ‘Established the White House Coronavirus Task Force, with leading experts on infectious diseases, to manage the Administration’s efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and to keep workplaces safe.’ Trump largely stopped attending those briefings for months, even as infections raged.

One achievement is that the administration ‘Halted American funding to the World Health Organization to counter its egregious bias towards China that jeopardized the safety of Americans.’ 

It notes that in tense early days, it ‘Converted the Javits Center in New York into a 3,000-bed hospital, and opened medical facilities in Seattle and New Orleans.’ Trump has complained that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo asked for the beds, hardly any of which ended up being used.

The administration ‘implemented strong community mitigation strategies to sharply reduce the number of lives lost in the United States down from experts’ projection of up to 2.2 million deaths in the United States without mitigation,’ it said. 

The release came on a day actual U.S. deaths his 400,000 – a number that would have been hard to fathom at the start of Trump’s term. 

On domestic security, the administration says it ‘deployed Federal agents to save the courthouse in Portland from rioters.’ It doesn’t mention that Trump spoke to a crowd of supporters this month who went on to storm the Capitol, endangering lawmakers and the electoral count laid out in the Constitution.

Trump was impeached in the House for ‘incitement of insurrection.’ That, too set a record of note: he became the only U.S. president who got impeached twice. 

Trump became the ‘first president to meet with a leader of North Korea and the first sitting president to cross the demilitarized zone into North Korea,’ the list said under a heading of ‘Peace Through Strength.’ 

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